Cruise to the Med... with kids!

[DrmnOfMaui]

We have registered on the Ruby Princess to cruise the Med next June and our whole family is so excited we can hardly stand it!! We are a family of 4: Mom, Dad, son (13) and daughter (10).

 

I've got my husband trying to figure out the airfare/hotel in Rome and I've started researching ports so that we can try to figure out what to see in the time that we have. (I think my job is WAY more fun that his!!:D). We are very excited to show Europe to our kids and felt that the cruise was a nice way to see hi-lights in a fairly short amount of time. I know that we can not see all that we would like to see, so that is why I would like to really research and try to figure out what would be a satisfying but not exhausting trip for us all. The kids are good travelers, but they are still young.

 

For those of you who have traveled with kids (or anyone else who has a tip or idea!!), what were some of your kids favorite things? What did they bring away from the trip that they have always remembered? What did not work so well? What would you change if you did it over again? We have been cautioned that this trip is very port intensive and that a number of the ports may be all day excursions and several may be back to back. On the other hand, others have also said that they erred on the side of not exhausting everyone that they ended up not seeing all that they could and would liked to have. We really want to try to expose them (and us!) to all the wonderful sights and history in this area that is the root of Western Civilization without making it an endless parade of statues, monuments, museums, churches, etc. etc. etc. !! :) In other words, we want to make this educational but keep it a "vacation" too.

 

Here is our itinerary. As first time cruisers it has been recommended that we stick mainly to Princess Shore Excursions, but we are not opposed to doing things on our own as well and would look forward to exploring the cities and ports. I would love to hear about the excursions that you did with your kids and their thoughts on them!

 

Arrive Rome 3 days before the cruise.

Monte Carlo, Monaco (thinking on our own?)

Florence/Pisa, Italy

Naples/Capri (Pompeii is a must see for my daughter!)

Cruising

Santorini, Greece

Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus)

Mykonos, Greece

Athens, Greece (Piraeus)

Katakolon, Greece (for Olympia) (daughter again is VERY excited as she just studied all about this place last year in school)

Corfu, Greece

Cruising

Disembark Venice (is Venice worth staying for a day or two?)

 

I always remember when I was little that my dad put tons of research and planning into a cross country trip for us. One of our stops was Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park and we had to wait for 30 minutes or so to see the geyser spray. My dad was SO excited! After it stopped my 7 year old sister said (very loudly so the whole crowd could hear...) "We drove 2 days just to see that???"

 

In any case, any cruise/port/travel tips are really appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Kim & Cruising Family

 

 

[junglejane]

Hi, Kim. Welcome to Cruise Critic. We recently returned from the June 16 Venice-Barcelona cruise on the Celebrity Summit with our two daughters who are 7 and 11. We had a fabulous time. I think our 7 year old was a bit young to care about a lot of what we saw, but your kids are great ages for this trip. Princess and Celebrity are our favorite lines! My review of our cruise is on the Member Review page and has some of our comments on the ports: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=43890.

 

It's great that you start in Rome and end in Venice, because those are both wonderful ports to spend some time in. We only had a few hours in Rome and felt rushed. I would love to have spent a few days there.

 

Venice is fabulous! My 11 year old says, "You can't get sick of Venice." I can't give you any tips on Rome hotels but we had a two room small suite (Room 14) in Venice at Locanda Orseolo, which is basically a charming bed and breakfast in a fabulous location very close to St. Mark's Square. I highly recommend it.

 

You may want to post on the Family Cruising board also, to get more feedback on cruising the Med with kids. You will love it!

 

--Junglejane

[DrmnOfMaui]

Thanks! I hadn't seen the family cruising part! I'll post there too....

 

I will check out your review as well!

 

Kim

[taxatty]

We have registered on the Ruby Princess to cruise the Med next June and our whole family is so excited we can hardly stand it!! We are a family of 4: Mom, Dad, son (13) and daughter (10).

 

Here is our itinerary. As first time cruisers it has been recommended that we stick mainly to Princess Shore Excursions, but we are not opposed to doing things on our own as well and would look forward to exploring the cities and ports. I would love to hear about the excursions that you did with your kids and their thoughts on them!

 

Arrive Rome 3 days before the cruise.

Monte Carlo, Monaco (thinking on our own?)

Florence/Pisa, Italy

Naples/Capri (Pompeii is a must see for my daughter!)

Cruising

Santorini, Greece

Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus)

Mykonos, Greece

Athens, Greece (Piraeus)

Katakolon, Greece (for Olympia) (daughter again is VERY excited as she just studied all about this place last year in school)

Corfu, Greece

Cruising

Disembark Venice (is Venice worth staying for a day or two?)

 

I always remember when I was little that my dad put tons of research and planning into a cross country trip for us. One of our stops was Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park and we had to wait for 30 minutes or so to see the geyser spray. My dad was SO excited! After it stopped my 7 year old sister said (very loudly so the whole crowd could hear...) "We drove 2 days just to see that???"

 

In any case, any cruise/port/travel tips are really appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Kim & Cruising Family

 

 

 

A few thoughts--we tried to plan certain things to interest our teen DD that came with us--

 

Monte Carlo--we rented a car (Hertz is right at the dock--driving is easy and roads are well marked) and saw Eze, St. Paul de Vence, Vence and La Turbie--more for our DD to see than Monaco, which seemed more for adults, although some will disagree.

 

Corfu--again, by rental car, the Paleokastristsa beach and the nearby monastery was lots of fun, clean and cheap.

 

Pompeii--it's very easy and cheap to take the Circumvesuviana train from the Naples Centrale station (with 4 of you, I'd use a taxi to get there although more expensive) to the Pompei Scavi stop, with the Pompeii site being a short walk away. The Circumvesuviana isn't exactly the Orient Express, but it will get you there and back. The Pompeii audioguides are not that expensive and quite good, and sometimes easier to hear than the live guides in very crowded Pompeii.

 

Florence/Pisa--figure out in advance how long your kids can stand fine art (as with the Uffizi and the Bargello), and plan accordingly. Don't miss the Accademia (David), the Duomo, the Baptistry and the ultimate kid quieter, gelato (absolutely not in that order). The Leaning Tower and the surrounding buildings in Pisa can be done in an hour, but try to see them if you can. We've used a great private guide, Violetta Buti of beautyinitaly.com, for that area.

 

Venice--VERY worth a day or two--see St. Marks and the nearby Doge's Palace. It's also one of the best (and safest) places in the world just to stroll, look, and get lost.

 

Same comment about gelato also applies to Rome and Venice.

 

Les

[genni]

You all may enjoy a few extra days to visit Venice on your own, at a less rushed pace. Good idea extra time in Rome - easy to divide days between the Vatican (prebook on line)and the rest of the city (after youv'e seen all that, next step is to figure out just how many artworks they will be interested in afterwards - or churches and ruins for that matter!)

 

Museums and most archaeological sites are closed on Mondaysin Italy.

 

Florence/Pisa - do book ahead for tickets - The Leaning Tower - long way up, a parent must keep with the kids), takes about 20-30 minutes (if you don't book, you may have to wait hours before your timeslot comes up!) - Now many of these churches are different inside, but just maybe it you'd want to skip going in (tickets can be global or separate - so you might wanto to book ahead only the tower)...

Florence - lots of churches, full of wonders, but one can only appreciate so much at a time...boys love to climb up to the top of the cathedral dome, but if you've done the Pisa tower, perhaps the parents have had enough! (more claustrophobic, hotter)

You'll have to do some research to decide which if any church...The Uffizi verses the Accademy (David) - there's c copy of the David out side near Palazzo Vecchio (near the Uffizi), the original is certainly something to see, but will they appreciate a big naked guy? The Uffizi - many of the artworks are religious themed, many may seem similar, however, there is no need to stop and memorize each one, interesting to point out the changes from the earlier ones to the Renaissance period, which can explain a bit of what Florence was about then, with stories of the Medici etc...both should be prebooked...

Naples/Pompei - It's not just the site itself but the tragic erruption that can be made interesting

Ephesus - the site is large, they may want to climb up the huge theater, if it's open, one of the largest they may ever see).

Katakolon - a fishing village, but you can charge your daughter with being the family tourguide at Olympus! (I printed a map of the site from the internet before going, does help). Here there is a small museum that's well done (perhaps decide between it and the one in Athens)

 

Athens - here a few names, that were mentioned at Olympia, will come up again: Pheisias, the sculptor who made the ivory/gold statue of Zeus at Olympia, did one of Athena for the Parthenon (both lost), and Herodes Atticus and his wide, Regilla (the Esedra fountain behind the temple of Hera at Olympia - funds for it donated by them) and the better preserved theater below the Acropolis, which Atticus had built in memory of his wife (you can explain that donating these buildings was sort of a duty for the wealthy, and good public relations for them, both in ancient Greece and Rome, also at Ephesus...)...go down to the temple of Zeus and you'll find a great place to take pictures of the Acropolis from below (especially with a zoom).

There is also the 1896 Olympic Stadium, built on the site of the ancient one for the 1st 'modern Olympics'...

One hint, since often these sites are crowded, you, or the kids can use a zoom to get good photos without the crowd in front of you, take them zoomed from farther away...helps when 10 years old and not very tall!

 

In June,if at the beginning of the month while the water won't be terribly warm (but warm enough if one goes in slowly) you might consider a beach day or morning/afternoon somewhere.

[DrmnOfMaui]

Thank you everyone for you wonderful tips and advice. We have spent that last week on the internet and reading library books. The kids and both of us are so excited and we still have a whole year to wait!

 

Genni, your detailed post was most helpful. We just viewed a tour DVD that showed the walk to the top of the Duomo and my son was indeed most interested. He at first saw all the step and said "Maybe... it looks like a long way". But when the narrator said "And when you get to the top you will be rewarded with "this" view!" my son's eyes got big and he said "We are definitely doing that!".

 

We have booked a B&B in the Trastevere area in Rome and could not be more thrilled. It looked so fantastic we actually added a day to our stay and will have a full 3 days in Rome! We haven't decided on Venice yet.

 

I have so much research to do on Greece. I've been to Italy myself and feel comfortable planning this part, but I really don't know anything about Greece. I'm really enjoying this research phase! Reading so much about some of the Roman places that I visited some 25 years ago has been such fun.

 

Taxatty, I think we will also do the car in Corfu! There was another thread about "What to do in Corfu" and many people said it was fairly easy to get around and fun to be on your own. Another research project to figure out what to do!

 

Thanks again everyone.

 

Kim

[vacationhappy]

Hi -

 

We took the same cruise several years ago - our children were 12 and 10 at the time - here is what we did and what I would do differently -

 

Arrive Rome 3 days before the cruise - definitely worth it - we took Angel Tours walking tour through the Vatican and Roman Forum - I would defintely use them again, it was good to understand what we were actually seeing. We really needed three days to adjust to the time zone...

 

Monte Carlo, Monaco (thinking on our own?) - we took a Princess tour to NIce, St. Paul, Monaco and Grasse. We really liked this however it made for a long day. I would definitely recommend seeing St. Paul...skip Grasse...Monte Carlo was good as a "drive by" with kids.

 

Florence/Pisa, Italy - we got a taxi at the dock and negotiated an all day excursion through Tuscany...we went to Volterra, San Giminagno and Pisa. It was perfect and I wouldn't change a thing.

 

 

Naples/Capri (Pompeii is a must see for my daughter!) - we did the Capri, Sorennto and Pompeii ship excursion - in retrospect, Capri was nice but I would skip it to see Pompeii. It was a 10 hour excursion and a very long day. Pomepii was spectacular and should not be missed.

 

Santorini, Greece - one of our favorite ports. My DH and 10 year old took the donkeys up and that is still one of her favorite memories. We took the bus to Oia and had lunch and then went back to Fira and shopped. It was one of our favorite ports.

 

Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus) - Rhodes was substitued for Kusadasi at the last minute due to a bus bombing....so we missed this port.

 

Mykonos, Greece - Mykonos was a great place to just go to the beach. We went to the "family beach" - Platys Gialos - it was perfect.

 

Athens, Greece (Piraeus) - we used Spiros Taxi and toured Athens and Sounion. There was a plane crash in Athens the day we were in port and many of the roads were closed. In retrospect, I would skip Sounion and just focus on spending more quality time in Athens.

 

Katakolon, Greece (for Olympia) (daughter again is VERY excited as she just studied all about this place last year in school) - took ships tour to Olympis - it was great.

 

 

Corfu, Greece - Corfu Town is OK but fairly non-descript. We went to the water park to blow off steam and relax - it was just what the kids needed.

 

 

Disembark Venice (is Venice worth staying for a day or two?) - Venice was our favorite port..sailing into Venice is breath taking and everything about it was exciting. We stayed two nights...

 

I hope this helps.....

[DrmnOfMaui]

Vacationhappy, it does help! I do have a couple of questions if you don't mind...

 

I'd love a little more detail on your Florence Day, what did you do in particular in Volterra and San Giminagno? I'm not familiar with those but will do a bit of research after I'm done here.

 

I'm guessing you did the Angel walking tours in Rome beforehand? I've heard lots of good things about them.

 

If you were to ask your kids their favorite memories from the cruise, onboard or port, what would they say? (This one is actually my son's question!)

 

Thanks for your reveiws!

 

Kim

[vacationhappy]

Hi -

 

We decided against going to Florence at the Livorno stop becasue we were there on a monday and the kids were tired of museums by this point. We "overdid" it in Rome.

 

Volterra and San G are two beautiful tuscan towns...each are very different. Volterra is an Etruscan town and is known for its alabaster. It is full with beautiful items made from it. We just wandered through the town for about 1.5 hours checking uot the architecture and scenery. The thing my kids remember about this town was there were wild boar heads hanging above many doorways... San G was gorgeous, we had lunch there and the shopping was fun. Just experiencing the leisurely lifestyle and incredible surroundings was fantastic. We loved Pisa. I know many on this board think Pisa is a waste of time but we thought there was alot to see and it was definitely worth the stop.

 

Yes, we did do the Angel walking tours in Rome. The guide was a great story teller and brough the Roman Forum and Colloseum to life. Without him, even though my kids were studying ancient Rome in history and Latin, I think we would just be looking at ruins.

 

Favorite memories -

 

On the ship - MUTS - after long touring days, we really enjoyed sitting in front of a movie. A couple of times if we ate a big meal in port, we would just grab a quick bite fromteh buffet or grill and watch a movie to unwind.

 

Santorini - when the kids first looked out and saw Santorini, the first question they asked - in awe - was "where are we?" The caledera had a beautiful pink glow and it was breathtaking - like you were in a fantasy movie. My 10 year old loved the donkey ride....she thought it was one of the funnest things she ever did.

 

Venice - we sailed into Venice in the evening and the city was lit up and Italian opera was playing. Nothing prepared any of us for that experience. Feeding the pigeons in St. Marks square, climbing out of the water taxi, through a window into a very beautiful and unique hotel (Locandra Oreseolo), taking a gondola ride - all expensive but once in a lifetime unique experiences. We are considering a different itineary next year and both are upset that Venice is not one of the stops.

 

Mykonos - experiencing a topless beach for the first time. It was the first time they realized women come in all shapes and sizes....there eyes were wide open.

 

Sail away every evening - on Princess, there was commentary at sail away each evening about the port...each evening was special. I recommend that you schedule a late dinner so that that you can experience this.

 

Some surprises -

 

We did not like Athens at all with the exception of the acropolis. It is not a pretty city but a cement city and it was very hot. However we all loved Greek food and culture.

 

The Amalfi Coast is definitely something we want to explore further - we all felt thatwe "wasted" a half day in Capri. Pompeii is a must see.

 

We really needed the sea days and some beach time to keep everyone happy. We sheduled heavy sightseeing days in Monte Carlo, Livorno, Naples, Santorini and Athens after spending three long days in Rome trying to see all of the sites and adjusting to the time change. I receommend getting tot he ship early, around noon, and spending the afternoon relaxing. We loved Rome but it proved to be an overwhelming experience for my 10 year old who looked forward to being in an American environment with a cheeseburger after the three days of Italian immersion.

 

We feel that a cruise is the perfect way to introduce kids and teens to Europe - they get daily doses of new cultural experiences but each evening they can come back to the same bed and familiar food.

[cusyl]

Your children are just the right age to appreciate all of the historic sights they will see on this trip. You may view my video leaving Venice on our trip. Everyone should take this trip at least once in their lifetime. :p :p

[windy12]

A few thoughts--we tried to plan certain things to interest our teen DD that came with us--

 

Monte Carlo--we rented a car (Hertz is right at the dock--driving is easy and roads are well marked) and saw Eze, St. Paul de Vence, Vence and La Turbie--more for our DD to see than Monaco, which seemed more for adults, although some will disagree.

 

Corfu--again, by rental car, the Paleokastristsa beach and the nearby monastery was lots of fun, clean and cheap.

 

Pompeii--it's very easy and cheap to take the Circumvesuviana train from the Naples Centrale station (with 4 of you, I'd use a taxi to get there although more expensive) to the Pompei Scavi stop, with the Pompeii site being a short walk away. The Circumvesuviana isn't exactly the Orient Express, but it will get you there and back. The Pompeii audioguides are not that expensive and quite good, and sometimes easier to hear than the live guides in very crowded Pompeii.

 

Florence/Pisa--figure out in advance how long your kids can stand fine art (as with the Uffizi and the Bargello), and plan accordingly. Don't miss the Accademia (David), the Duomo, the Baptistry and the ultimate kid quieter, gelato (absolutely not in that order). The Leaning Tower and the surrounding buildings in Pisa can be done in an hour, but try to see them if you can. We've used a great private guide, Violetta Buti of beautyinitaly.com, for that area.

 

Venice--VERY worth a day or two--see St. Marks and the nearby Doge's Palace. It's also one of the best (and safest) places in the world just to stroll, look, and get lost.

 

Same comment about gelato also applies to Rome and Venice.

 

Les

 

Hi Les,

 

We will be in Monte Carlo on Aug 5 on Emerald Princess. I made a reservation with Hertz over the phone but they could not tell me where the local office is located. They gave me an address of 27 blvd albert. Is this where you rented?

 

Wendy